


Safe There in Your Arms

by BlessedAreTheFandoms



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm going to have to damn near kill them in another work to balance the fluffiness, M/M, Marriage Proposal, My First Work in This Fandom, Not Canon Compliant, so I guess that means I can use the tag, this stupid thing literally woke me up to write it, which is wildly out of character for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:02:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27513526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlessedAreTheFandoms/pseuds/BlessedAreTheFandoms
Summary: Malcolm Reed is known for being able to think before he speaks, until one morning that his beloved speak-before-he-thinks boyfriend catches him off guard.  Will Malcolm let himself say what he actually wants to say for once?
Relationships: Malcolm Reed/Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Comments: 22
Kudos: 47





	Safe There in Your Arms

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Norah Jones' "Come Away with Me," because if the story wasn't fluffy enough now you have a romantic soundtrack as well.

Malcolm Reed stretched, deliberately sliding himself along the full length of Trip Tucker’s body under the blankets on his bunk.

“Now that’s just teasin’,” Trip murmured, his eyes opening lazily as he reached out and pulled Malcolm even closer.

Malcolm trailed long fingers over Trip’s arms around him, smiling at the growing interest he could feel at his back. “Are you even fully awake?”

“Do I need to be?”

“I’m not sure whether that’s a compliment to me or an indictment against you.”

Trip kissed the hollow behind Malcolm’s ear. “Can’t blame a man for respondin’ to an armful of beautiful.”

Malcolm snorted. “Even for you, that’s quite a line.”

One hand splaying across Malcolm’s chest and the other sliding to points south, Trip brushed his lips over Malcolm’s neck. “But is it workin’?”

"I don’t think it’s—oh!—the _line_ that’s doing the work.”

Trip chuckled. “As long as it’s somethin’ workin’.”

“It’s always ‘something’ with you.” Malcolm reached back to run a hand through the sunflower hair, twisting to lie on his back and pull Trip over him for a proper kiss. “Not a terrible way to wake up, really,” he said.

“I could get used to it.”

“I want to get used to it.”

Trip pulled back, eyebrows raised, and Malcolm internally cursed. “I’m a bit dense sometimes, I know,” said Trip slowly, “but does that mean you’re uncomfortable now?”

“No,” said Malcolm, nearly kicking himself, “no, I’m fine.”

“Then does that mean you want to try this out more often?”

Malcolm looked away, curling into himself in the enclosure of Trip’s arms. “It was just a remark.”

“You don’t really do ‘just’ remarks.”

“There’s always a first time.”

Rolling to his side, Trip, leaned on his elbow and gently tilted Malcolm’s head back toward him. “Mal?”

Malcolm opened his mouth to dismiss the matter out of hand--it was nothing, forget it—but Trip’s furrowed brow stopped him. Trip Tucker was not a man to let relational dogs lie when he felt there was a problem. Malcolm sighed. “We could, you know, bunk together.”

“Like, permanently? I’d be down for it; the ship wasn’t really designed to support multi-people cabins, though.”

“No, of course not. It’s impractical.” Malcolm turned away again but was stopped by Trip’s hand on his chest.

“Mal, is that somethin’ you want?”

“What I want is to marry you.”

That startled them both and Malcolm cursed the sudden betrayal of his usual brain-to-mouth filter. “I mean—”

“Is that a proposal?”

Malcolm stared. “Of course not! If I’m going to propose, it’s going to be on one knee with a ring and a plan like a proper gentleman, not some half-baked morning-after misfire.” He looked at Trip’s clear blue eyes, at the lack of the usual mirth. “Did—did you want it to be?”

“Now that would be givin’ away my answer without havin’ been asked,” Trip said with a smile, but the smile didn’t quite reach those eyes. There was something else in them, something that wasn’t desire—Malcolm had seen that enough to know it instantly—but might have been in the neighborhood of…hope?

Malcolm calculated a moment before sliding out of the blanket cocoon. The deck was brutally cold to his bare knee as he knelt and splayed his hands to the astonished Trip Tucker sitting in the bed above him.

“Charles Tucker the Third, we’ve been together for two years. We’ve been through hell and back—at least twice—and we’ve explored parts of the universe we didn’t even know existed before. But the most fascinating, infuriating, terrifying, and beautiful thing I’ve found…is you.” Malcolm took a deep breath. “And you’re a galaxy unto yourself that I could spend a lifetime exploring; I’d…I would like to try. So I have no ring, I have no plans, I don’t even have any bloody clothes on, but I’m asking anyway: will you marry me?”

Trip gawped at him, the blanket pooled around his waist, forgotten.

“Trip,” Malcolm stage-whispered, “this is the part where you say something.”

"What? Oh! Oh, yeah! I mean, yes! I mean, it must be freezin’ out there, get back in here.” He reached down and pulled Malcolm to the bed, wrapping the two of them against each other as Trip kissed Malcolm over and over. “Yes to you, and yes to exploration, and yes to you without clothes, and just yes all over.”

Malcolm grinned and slowed the enthusiasm of the Floridian. “I only meant to have a conversation about what it might look like.”

“We can do that.”

Malcolm looked pointedly down as Trip pulled him closer. “I don’t think a conversation is what you have in mind right now.”

“Darlin’,” said Trip, trailing a finger across Malcolm’s fine cheekbones, “I’m gonna marry you. I think we can spare some time for a little celebration before the conversation about how.”

Knowing the fight was already lost, Malcolm kissed him deeply, rolling onto his back and thinking that perhaps spontaneity had a bit of something going for it, after all, here in the warm circle of his lover’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> I started watching "Enterprise" a couple of months ago and immediately fell in love with awkward and lovely Malcolm Reed Who Is Definitely Gay. When I came looking for "Enterprise" fanfiction, I found that he gets paired with Tucker a lot (heyo, Tuckerreed). Now that I've seen two and a half seasons, I see why and totally support this dance of opposites. I did not intend to add to it, but it's been a rough week and apparently my brain wanted soft and fluffy things, so. Hi, fandom, let me introduce myself, I'm new to this area (my OTP and gateway ship is Garashir).


End file.
